Look closely for the Hollywood sign...Sorry for the delay in posting - things were a little busy at work after the Memorial Day holiday. Anyway, on Sunday we decided to really go to Hollywood this time (we were sidetracked on Saturday and ended up at Santa Monica beach!) - we still took a very roundabout way, going on the Ventura freeway, getting off at Mulholland Drive and going via Beverly Hills to Hollywood. It was, in fact, a very scenic drive and I continue to be amazed at how hilly and wild some parts of LA actually are.
Anyway, from the wild canyons to the houses of the megastars to tourist central took a mere 15 minutes. Then we were at Grauman's Chinese Theatre mingling with the stars (actually stepping all over them!). We knew we were at a touristy place because we had to pay to take pictures! So I am putting this pic below because it cost me $2! It was still a relatively cheap day out because we got $2 parking for 4 hours at Hollywood and Highland (where the Kodak Theatre is located, venue of the annual Academy Awards and of course, American Idol). All you have to do to get the $2 parking is validate your ticket at any of the shops in the complex, so we went for an LA invention - the French Dip sandwich. Apparently a roast beef sandwich was accidently dropped in a pot of au jus, it was found to taste rather good (if a little soggy) and voila! The French Dip was born.
We drove back to Pasadena via the Pasadena Freeway (State Route 110), the first freeway built in California in 1940. It is very nicely landscaped and "only" 3 lanes each way, making it a small road by LA standards, but it is a nice drive - I could imagine a Formula 1 race on this road - lots of curves, hills and tunnels.
On Memorial Day itself we decided to take it easy (I had an 8 hour marathon call for the annual performance review session in the middle of the night to Memorial Day - the disadvantage of being in this time zone is that work typically starts on Sunday evening for me). So we just went to Memorial Park in Pasadena (how fitting!) and then took a stroll around Old Town Pasadena. In keeping with trying out all things invented in California, we decided to buy some dessert from the Cheesecake factory. I made the mistake of buying 2 slices - one Godiva chocolate cheesecake and one White Choc Raspberry Truffle (sorry no pics!). I say mistake because it took the two of us 4 days to finish those 2 slices of cake!!! Anyway, that's value for money!
Well that was the Memorial Day weekend and we certainly managed to cover a lot without getting too stressed out! With Lucas we can't really stay away for more than about 4 hours before he gets tired and grouchy, so we have been tackling all the sights in bite-sized chunks!
4 comments:
$2 is outrageous! I mean, that's more than I paid yesterday for a great dinner!
Haha, how am I going to survive in back in New York?!
Hope you enjoyed Mulholland drive. There's a David Lynch movie called Mulholland drive that's based on it, one of my all time favorites.
Actually my home cooked dinner in Pasadena also cost less than $1 per person - Barilla spaghetti on offer @ 99c/lb and a big bottle of Classico Italian sauce @ 1.79, makes 4 big portions at 70c per meal :-)
Food here can be cheap - it's getting other people to cook & clean that's expensive!
Jeni!
I am suffering in NY. I am still reeling from how expensive things are. And the clothing stores are so tempting...
Komal
Dom - sorry, forgot to answer your question about the pictures. does blogger give you access to the html script? if so, in the area where you insert the picture, add an 'align' text. so:
(img src="http://www.linkofyourpicture.com" align="left")
(parentheses are "<>" tags; for some reason this comment wont' let me type them.)
hope this helps.
Manuka! you can try to resist but you will give up soon - new york is a city of temptations! But if you keep in mind that the richest and the poorest of the country live there, maybe that will help :)
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